Our eyes are very powerful and
sensitive. As we age, we develop problems as our eyes become weak. We
may be nearsighted, farsighted or get objects in our eyes. We may just
simply not look where we are going.Similarly, as we age spiritually, we can develop spiritual
sight problems. We fail to see things properly. Here we will study
examples found in the Scriptures of these sight problems.
Nearsightedness
In Judges 9,Abimelech is made king by the Shechemitesonly later to be overthrown by them. Although accepting the
kingship at the time seemed like a good idea, it became the means of
his death. Like Abimelech, we only see the immediate future directly
in front of us. We fail to see “afar off”, the “big picture. It
causes us to make unfavorable decisions.
In the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus, the rich man (the sinner) wants instant gratification and
gets an eternity of torment. Lazarus (the Christian) suffers
persecution in hope of a better future and receives an eternity of
paradise (Luke 16 and John 11). This is similar to Moses’ decision
in Hebrews 11:25-26.
“Choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto
the recompense of the reward.”
Nearsightedness
is one of the biggest spiritual problems today. This is evident in the
choices that fornicators, liars, and worldly businesspersons make.
Something in the Eye
When
something gets in the eye, everything becomes blurry, especially when
the cause is a small speck. Spiritually this causes us to become
critical of others, not to see correctly. We cannot even see our own
errors.
“Judge not, that ye be not
judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why
beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest
not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy
brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a
beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the
beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out
the mote out of thy brother's eye.” (Mat.
7:1-5)
In
addition, when something is in our spiritual “eye,” we do not
practice what we preach. For example, we may say “Don’t lie!”
but we gossip, or “Don’t gamble!” but we buy raffle tickets. In
Romans 2:21-23, Paul writes,
“Thou
therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou
that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that
sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?
thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that
makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest
thou God?”
Looking back
The
rich young ruler looked back at what he owned.
“Jesus
said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and
sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven: and come and
follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away
sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” (Mat. 19:21-22)
Being
regretful is another example of looking back.
“And
he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to
go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their
dead: but go thou and preach the
kingdom
of
God
. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go
bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto
him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit
for the
kingdom
of
God
.” (Luke 9:59-62)
Sometimes
we look back at what we were before our baptism into Christ, and we
drown in shame because it reminds us of our unworthiness. However, we
are allunworthy!By looking back, we cannot grow into a new creature because we
are too busy looking at the old man. “Therefore if any man be
in Christ, heis
a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17)
The
Cure
To
keep from looking back, we need to be looking far ahead (not just a
little ahead), like the prodigal son’s father. “And
he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off,
his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck,
and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)
Look
ahead in the Lord’s Supper. There are four looks—inward, outward,
backward, and forward. “For as
often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's
death till he come.” (1Cor. 11:26)
Look
ahead to Christ’s second coming. “But
of that day and that
hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither
the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not
when the time is.” (Mar 13:32-33)
Work nowso we can “rest” later. (Heb 4:1-11)
If we do get our eyes fixed (like
putting on new glasses or vision correction surgery), we will be able
to see:
That
it is useless to worry about material things.
“Therefore
take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?
or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things.But
seek ye first the
kingdom
of
God
, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof.” (Mat.
6:31-34)
You
can’t take it with you!
“For
we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” (1 Tim. 6:7)
That
life is brief.
“Whereas ye know not what shallbe
on the morrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and
then vanisheth away.”
(Jas. 4:14)
That
we need to be in a saved condition now
(For
he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of
salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is
the accepted time; behold, now is
the day of salvation.) (2
Cor. 6:2).
“And
to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ:” (2 Thes. 1:7-8)
That
we need to continue adding the Christian graces, adding to faith
virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly
kindness, and charity (2 Pet. 1:5-7).
“But
he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and
hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” (2Pet.
1:9)
Seeing
spiritually is very important. We must understand the faithful who
died:
“These
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off, and were persuaded of them,
and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
(Heb 11:13)
So
let us press forward by looking ahead as Paul did.
“Brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended: but this
one thing Ido, forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us
therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing
ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”
(Phi. 3:13-15)
QUESTION: What does the passage
in Mark 16:12 mean when it states that the resurrected Jesus appeared
in “another form” to two men? DidChrist
take on different forms as He presented Himself to His disciples when
He was resurrected?
ANSWER: Questions concerning Jesus and
His appearance both before and after His resurrection have intrigued
students of the Bible for centuries. As with all questions concerning
God’s truth we must rely upon the Scriptures for our answers.
The doctrine of the incarnation
of Jesus is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian system. By the
incarnation we are referring to the condescension of the second person
of the God head to be born, to live, and to die in human form in order
to provide redemption for mankind from our sins.In fact some commentators refer to it as the central miracle of
all the grand and wonderful things God has ever done. One of the
greatest passages on the incarnation is found in Philippians chapter
2:5-8. Before we address the question at hand concerning the form of
Jesus we will turn our attention to this passage.
“Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the
form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but
made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and
coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the
death of the cross.”
This passage in addition to the
theological truth taught is also one that demands a response from all
who are Christians. This passage begins by pointing to an attitude or
a mind set that we as God’s people must possess. It is a
motivational passage given to us so that we will be motivated to live
like Jesus.
As we look at this passage the
first point that needs to be noted is that Jesus left an exalted
position to take the form of man. Paul mentions that Jesus existed in
the form of God. This phrase has reference to the fact that before,
during, and after His incarnation He was in His very nature eternally
God. The Greek word for form is morphe. It refers to the outward
appearance of an inner reality. The use of this word shows that Jesus
is God and equal with the Father in every way. He has been and always
will be divine. Morphe is the referring to a form that never changes.
However there is another Greek word (schema) that refers to the
outward form that does change from time to time. For example we are
all of mankind that is our form as a human being. Yet our outward
appearance does indeed change all the time.
We bring this up to make sure
that when we speak of the form of Jesus, we need to indicate which
form we are discussing. Many errors concerning the divinity of Christ
have been made by a failure to distinguish between the different
words. Jesus was and is always God. However He did take another form
when He came in the flesh. It is the latter that our question has
reference to. We must realize that taking of the form of flesh did not
in anyway alter the form He possessed as God.
Now concerning the latter, His
physical form, the Bible does shed some light. We now turn out
attention to some of the passages that do so.
We have a brief description of
Jesus during His physical lifetime. In Isaiah 53:2,3we read,
“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a
root out of dry ground, He has no form or comeliness; And when we see
Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and
rejected by men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid, as it were, our faces from him; He was despised, and we did not
esteem Him.”
This passage tells us that Jesus
was ordinary in His physical being. In fact the writer of Hebrews
tells us that,
“Therefore, in all things He had to made like His brethren,
that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things
pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
(Heb. 2:17)
We conclude that He was an
ordinary man that had nothing special or different about His
appearance. Even after His resurrection and before His ascension He
still maintained a physical body which had flesh and bones.
“Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the
midst of them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you’. But they were
terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He
said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your
hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me
and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I
have.” (Luke 24:13-31)
But we must also note that the
form that Jesus had during this time sometimes apparently in some way
changed. For example in John 20:15-16 Mary did not recognize Him at
first. Also consider John 21:4, 12-14 when He had breakfast with the
disciples. As He stood on the beach they did not know that it was
Jesus.
Then there is the passage that is
the one referred to in our question Mark 16:12. Here we read, “After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they
walked and went into the country.”
We have established that Jesus
appeared in another form in several cases. But we ask did His actual
form change or did their perception of Him change? This is of course a
question that has been debated. There is a passage that tends to shed
some light on the subject. In Luke 24:13-16 note what is stated.
“Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a
village called Emmaus, which was seven miles form
Jerusalem
. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So
it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew
near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they
did not know Him”.
In this passage it appears that
His form changed not in actuality but rather in the way the disciple
saw Him. It was their eyes that were restrained and not an actual
change in His appearance. The other form was in the way they saw Him
rather than a physical change in His appearance.
So in answer to the question
“did Christ take on different forms after His resurrection?” Yes
He did.Was there an
actual change in His body or did the change appear only because their
perception was altered? We tend to lean toward the latter rather than
the former. Now the question is why? We save that for another time.
1.Who
spoke against Moses and was stricken by God with leprosy and
confined outside the camp for seven days?
2.In
first Samuel when
Israel
was in battle with the Philistines, who went to the Philistine
garrison prior to battle to see if the Lord might help them?
3.What
did Solomon say no one has the power to do?
4.Who
blessed the infant Jesus when Mary and Joseph took Him to the temple
to be circumcised?
5.Paul
said the return of Christ will be accompanied by what two things?
ANSWERS NEXT MONTH . . .
and
remember last month’s questions?
1.During
the ordination of Aaron and his sons, how long were they to remain
at the entrance to the tabernacle of meeting according to Moses’
commandment?SEVEN
DAYS (Lev. 8:33)
2.In
Judges who came to Bokim and told the people that they would suffer
for turning away from the Lord?AN ANGEL OF THE LORD (Judges 2:1-2)
3.Who
was David fleeing from when he wrote in Psalm 3: “Lord, how they have increased who trouble me!”?HIS SON ABSALOM (Psa. 3)
4.What
tree did Jesus curse for having no fruit for him to eat?A FIG TREE (Mark 11:13-14)
5.Who
founded the Church at Colossi? Epaphras
(1:7-8)
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